He has enchanted millions of viewers, won a clutch of Oscars and vastly boosted sales of Wensleydale cheese. But Wallace and Gromit creator Nick Park has declared that his latest achievement, guest editing the 70th anniversary edition of the Beano, is an honour to equal all others.

The special birthday edition of the comic, which features Gromit alongside Beano favourites on the cover, opens with an editor's letter from Park detailing his longstanding love affair with the title, published by DC Thomson.

Park played a hands-on role in editing the comic, on sale in the first week of August.

The Beano inspired him to become an animator and fired his imagination, Park reveals. "I've been a fan of it all my life. My dream was to draw for the Beano.

"Since I was 10 years old I was a reader and I started drawing cartoon strips with the Beano in mind. I lived in that world. You own a comic, it's yours and adults don't understand it."

The director is making the fifth Wallace and Gromit adventure, titled A Matter of Loaf and Death, in which both the absent minded inventor and his quick witted dog find romance. It is a return to the half-hour television format, following a successful excursion into feature films with Curse of the Were Rabbit, and will form part of the BBC's Christmas schedule.

Park said there were clear parallels between the world of Wallace and Gromit and Beanotown, which has featured many of the same characters since its earliest days. More than 3,000 editions of the comic have appeared since it was first published on July 30 1938 by DC Thomson, the Dundee-based publisher also responsible for Dandy, Oor Wullie and other British comic staples.

"It was quite a revelation to discover it was made in Scotland. Because it was so cool and naughty and fun I thought it must be American," Park added.